Some people—like the researchers in Wiser Healthcare—worry about overdiagnosis, mostly because of the harm that it may cause. However when researchers set out to study public reactions to overdiagnosis, they’re often surprised to find that people are enthusiastic about screening and testing even when [...]
Historically, randomized controlled trials have served as the state-of-the-art method for determining the efficacy and safety of new, innovative treatment regimens for patients with cancer and other diseases. It is imperative that such trials are carefully designed to ensure that they are scientifically and [...]
Cancer screening should be carried out in a way that is mindful of widely accepted ideas about right and wrong. We argue that cancer screening policies and practices don’t pay enough attention to important matters such as avoiding harm or supporting people’s abilities to [...]
Changing the definition of a disease can greatly increase the number of people diagnosed with the condition, potentially resulting in overdiagnosis and overtreatment. A 2017 study found that recent changes to the definitions of hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia and diabetes doubled the number of people said [...]
For decades, persuasive techniques have been used to communicate to women about breast cancer screening with the aim of maximizing screening uptake. However, more recently this has shifted to an approach which recognizes that it is important for women to be aware of harms, [...]
Despite good evidence over the past 14 years demonstrating that knee arthroscopy provides no benefit to people with knee osteoarthritis, there has not been a consistent reduction in knee arthroscopy rates over this time. This study looked at the information that is available online [...]
The EVOLVE ‘evaluating evidence, enhancing efficiencies’ initiative is a clinician-led partnership between the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and its specialist societies. Modelled on international Choosing Wisely initiatives, it aims to identify a ‘top five’ list of low value clinical practices that clinicians and [...]
We reviewed the reliability of online heart disease risk calculators and the increasing popularity of “heart age” calculators, which assess 4 out of 5 people as having an older heart age than their current age. The papers explain how these calculations are highly variable [...]
The large number of men screened for prostate cancer in some countries, and the extent of public misperception and scientific contention about the PSA test, makes communication between men and their GPs about PSA screening especially important. But communicating about screening is difficult. Professional [...]
Autopsy studies of women not known to have breast disease during life demonstrated large amounts of incidental breast cancer and precursors. Incidental invasive breast cancer was found consistently across studies, even where few sections of tissue were examined microscopically. Incidental in-situ cancer and atypical [...]